College dropout, billionaire Gautam Adani named world’s third richest person
Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has been named as the world’s third richest person.
The 60 year old college dropout has an estimated fortune of $137bn (£117bn) and becomes the first Asian among the top three wealthiest people in the world.
Adani founded the mining-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group after dropping out of university. Most of the billionaire’s businesses are involved in natural gas, coal mining and electricity generation, which experts reckon might have benefited from the global energy price increase.
Last week, he increased his influence by buying a 29 per cent stake in a TV channel; New Delhi Television (NDTV).
His wealth has soared by $61bn so far this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as the market value of many of his companies have grown.
In the top 10 list of billionaires, they have all experienced falls in their wealth this year with an exception of Adani whose wealth continued to rise.
Heading the list is Tecla boss, Elon Musk whose fortune is estimated at $251bn while Amazon’s Jeff Bezos came second with $153bn.
